Legal & General Group Plc Sells 379,670 Shares of Antero Midstream Corporation $AM

Key Points

• Legal & General Group Plc reduced its Antero Midstream stake by 44.1% in the fourth quarter, selling 379,670 shares and leaving it with 480,730 shares worth about $8.55 million.
• Antero Midstream reported quarterly EPS of $0.25, missing estimates by $0.01, while revenue came in at $314.21 million, slightly above expectations and up 7.9% year over year.
• The company recently paid a $0.225 quarterly dividend, implying an annualized yield of 4.2%, though its payout ratio is elevated at 104.65%.

Legal & General Group Plc cut its position in Antero Midstream Corporation (NYSE:AM - Free Report) by 44.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 480,730 shares of the pipeline company's stock after selling 379,670 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned 0.10% of Antero Midstream worth $8,552,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Antero Midstream in the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. Larson Financial Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Antero Midstream by 68.1% in the fourth quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 1,747 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 708 shares during the period. Hantz Financial Services Inc. increased its stake in shares of Antero Midstream by 138.1% in the third quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 2,688 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $52,000 after buying an additional 1,559 shares during the period. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Antero Midstream by 401.4% in the second quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 2,778 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $53,000 after buying an additional 2,224 shares during the period. Finally, Covestor Ltd increased its stake in shares of Antero Midstream by 437.7% in the fourth quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 4,307 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $77,000 after buying an additional 3,506 shares during the period. 53.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Antero Midstream Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:AM opened at $21.57 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.89. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $21.84 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $20.31. Antero Midstream Corporation has a 1-year low of $16.77 and a 1-year high of $23.83. The stock has a market cap of $10.24 billion, a PE ratio of 25.08 and a beta of 0.66.

Antero Midstream (NYSE:AM - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The pipeline company reported $0.25 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.26 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $314.21 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $311.30 million. Antero Midstream had a net margin of 33.90% and a return on equity of 20.38%. Antero Midstream's revenue was up 7.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.25 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Antero Midstream Corporation will post 1.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Antero Midstream Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 13th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 29th were given a dividend of $0.225 per share. This represents a $0.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, April 29th. Antero Midstream's dividend payout ratio is currently 104.65%.

Insider Transactions at Antero Midstream

In other news, Director Brooks J. Klimley sold 5,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.16, for a total transaction of $115,800.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 69,680 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,613,788.80. This represents a 6.70% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Michael N. Kennedy sold 100,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, May 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.92, for a total value of $2,192,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 1,500,594 shares in the company, valued at $32,893,020.48. This represents a 6.25% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 213,269 shares of company stock worth $4,713,681 over the last quarter. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on AM shares. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on Antero Midstream from $18.00 to $23.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Antero Midstream from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, March 13th. Weiss Ratings raised Antero Midstream from a "buy (b+)" rating to a "buy (a-)" rating in a research note on Friday, March 6th. UBS Group raised their target price on Antero Midstream from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 25th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised Antero Midstream from an "underweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and set a $26.00 target price for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $24.00.

Antero Midstream Company Profile

Antero Midstream Corporation is a publicly traded midstream service provider that was established in 2014 as a spin-off from Antero Resources. Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, the company owns, operates and develops midstream infrastructure to support the gathering, compression, processing, transportation and storage of natural gas, natural gas liquids (NGLs) and crude oil. Antero Midstream plays a critical role in connecting upstream production in the Appalachian Basin to end-market pipelines and processing facilities.

The company's core operations include a network of gathering pipelines and compression stations that serve the Marcellus and Utica shale formations across West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio.

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